


Reyla of the Southern Water Tribe

by safarijcubz



Series: Reyla of the Southern Water Tribe [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bending (Avatar), Bloodbending (Avatar), Canon Compliant, Canon Era, During Canon, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Expanded Universe, F/F, F/M, Firebending & Firebenders, Gen, Martial Arts, Original Character(s), POV Female Character, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Philosophy, Pre-Canon, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:19:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28781127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/safarijcubz/pseuds/safarijcubz
Summary: Earth. Fire. Air. Water.Only the Avatar can master all 4 elements.But just because you’re not the Avatar doesn’t mean you can’t unlock their secrets and bring balance to master yourself.
Relationships: Baatar Jr./Kuvira (Avatar), Bolin (Avatar)/Original Character(s), Bolin/Korra (Avatar), Korra (Avatar)/Original Character(s), Korra/Asami Sato, Korra/Kuvira (Avatar), Korra/Mako (Avatar)
Series: Reyla of the Southern Water Tribe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2169390
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue: The Avatar's Mansion

**Author's Note:**

> have some other chapters planned.  
> work will grow as chapters are uploaded, but not to worry, added chapters should only enhance the experience of a re-read ;)

The wind whipped about mercilessly, swirling into the black abyss of the sky – just another winter’s day in the South Pole. In fact it was not unlike the day the White Lotus came to the South and met the end of their search for the Water Avatar, so the legend goes.

A man, a woman, and a girl bundled thickly trudged through the high snow and air so cold that it cut their eyes like shards of glass towards the compound surrounded by high white walls. The man rapped on the wooden gate with the heavy iron knocker. A White Lotus sentry answered. The man handed a letter with a seal that turned out to be important, because the sentry immediately let the family pass through the gates before barring them. The family were led across a large open courtyard covered knee-deep in snow, towards the central house in the compound. Entering the house was like entering another world entirely – the wind was not to be heard, and the walls were paneled with wood that was made to feel even warmer by the large lamp hanging in the center of the foyer. Their shadows flickered on the walls with the many dancing fires on the lamp. A wizened old lady with a mild hunchback entered the room.

“Master Katara, we are honored that you have accepted our Reyla as your student. We know it is an exception on your part. Both Muna and I, we owe a large debt of gratitude to you,” the man clasped the old lady’s hands and bowed deeply so that his head was below the level of hers.

“Well, from what I have seen, she truly is an exceptional child, not that I have any lack of exceptional children here,” she replied with a twinkle in her eye and cast her gaze up the stairs where a small wiry figure padded curiously in the shadows, “but you could have brought her in when the weather was better! You didn’t need to subject the poor child to this!” She gestured toward the window where the wind could be seen to be whipping up the fallen snow into little cyclones.

“Well, Arnok is leaving with the hunting party tomorrow, and wanted to see our little Reyla off on her first day of bending training,” the younger woman replied with a placid smile. A girl no older than five years old clasped the woman’s legs from behind, the girl’s face buried in the small of the woman’s bum bashfully.

“Come here, Reyla, so I can see you,” Katara gestured kindly to the girl.

“Come on,” Muna coaxed her daughter.

Reyla shuffled round from behind her mother, tiny boots padding on the hardwood floor, large round cheeks still flush from fighting the cold, her blue eyes retreated into tiny slits from those cheeks. She was wrapped so tightly in furs that she was more ball than girl, and, had she been tossed to a polar bear dog, might have been mistaken for as much. Her mittened hands tightly grasped a tiny backpack. A dribble of clear snot slipped from her button nose, as she regarded Katara with widened eyes.

Katara knelt to Reyla’s eye level and placed a hand gently on the girl’s head before turning back up to the parents, “so you say she is able to form steam from water? And no waterbending master has been able to find a solution to help her control it?”

“That’s right, Master Katara,” replied Arnok, “and unfortunately neither of us are benders, so we have no clue what to do.”

Katara turned back to Reyla, “You know who also struggled with a similar problem with her native element?” She said with another twinkle in her eye, “Avatar Kyoshi.”

Reyla’s eyes widened even more, and her tiny mouth turned up in a smile. She pulled out from her tiny backpack a little stuffed doll of Avatar Kyoshi.

“I think you will be just fine here, Reyla,” said Katara and turning toward the stairs, shouted “KORRA! Come down and meet your new bending sister!!”

What sounded like a stampede of air bison heralded the entrance of Korra, the current incarnation of the Avatar and all of an eight-year-old girl. She smiled at Reyla gregariously and took her by the hand.

“Show Reyla to her room, Korra.”

Without warning, Korra darted upstairs with the ball of fur in tow stumbling excitedly to keep up.

There was a goodly-sized room, wood paneled as well, with one twin-sized bed on each side.

“That’s yours,” said Korra, pointing to one of the beds, “and this is mine,” she pointed to the other.

The grownups were not far behind.

Arnok bent down to Reyla’s eye level, “now you be good, Master Katara will teach you how to be a waterbender just like her. Make us proud.” He kissed her on top of her head, and so did her mother. They packed her clothes into the trunk at the foot of the bed, and, promising to come over for dinner every night and to tuck her in, they left. It was the same arrangement that Korra’s parents had, apparently.

That night Reyla stared curiously as Korra flopped into bed with limbs outspread and slipped into a drooling snore. Reyla clutched her little Kyoshi and stared at the wooden ceiling, and out the window, where the wind had stopped whipping, and by starlight she could make out the silhouette of the moon – the new moon.


	2. First Lessons

Master Katara says I have to learn to feel my chi. It lives at the center, in the dantian. It feels the push of energy through the ground, into the feet, up the legs into the center. From the center it flows back down the sides of the legs into the ground – this is the gravity that pulls you to the ground. You push on the ground, and the ground pulls you. Push becomes a pull, and pull becomes a push. You cannot push unless you first pull, and you cannot pull unless you first push. 

Water is no different from your body – you can begin with a push, or you can begin with a pull, but the yin must always be followed by the yang, the yang must always be followed by the yin. 

Water is not like earth, which only takes one shape at a time. Water is not like fire, which only goes one direction at a time. Sometimes water can be any shape, or no shape. And most of the time water wants to go in every direction at once. Maybe it’s like air like that. But water is not like air. Water has weight. 

I study eight hours a day with Korra, under Master Katara. 

I like to feel my chi. I like following it as it flows through me. I like extending it outwards to call the water. I like rocking the water back and forth in a lie-down figure-8.

* * * * * 

Today in practice, Korra bent a snowball at my head that sent me face first into the snow. I stood up, and, dusting myself off, turned to face her as she yelled “THINK FAST” and sent another snowball flying toward my nose. I bent a wall of snow in front of me to block the snowball. Master Katara wandered up beside me and simply said “you could do that, but what else could you do?”

Suddenly a barrage of snowballs came flying in our direction and I was hiding behind my wall, while Master Katara nonchalantly bent away the snowballs such that they fell in front of her, piling up into a wall. She winked at me. 

I crept out from behind the wall as the onslaught of snowballs came, and tried to imitate Master Katara by bending them just before they hit my face. The ones I managed to catch had so much momentum it took more strength than I had to deflect them. I’d seen Korra training with the benders who were grown men and she gave trouble to even them, with her raw power. But then I realized, I didn’t need to deflect the momentum of her projectiles; I just needed to hold on to them long enough to redirect their power through my center, my dantian and release them back in her direction.

Master Katara saw what I had figured out on my own, without her telling me, and beamed. 

With so many snowballs coming at me in I got ample practice to get the hang of it – it began to feel natural. And then it clicked – this is the meaning of the pushing hands exercise Master Katara made us do – circling and circling to practice catching the energy. 

Just as I was getting complacent, Korra quit the snowballs and sent a rolling wave of snow in our direction about my waist-high. I confidently took my single-whip stance to prepare to counter-roll the wave, but when I released my chi, it did not stop! The wave just kept barreling on through in my direction! It was at that moment I realized that Korra was bending the earth under the snow, rather than the snow itself, before the wave threw me to the ground and knocked the wind out of me.  
Hot tears welled in my eyes and my cheeks burned. Master Katara grabbed me by my coat shoulders and stood me back up. She wiped my cheek with her sleeve and walked over to Korra. 

“Korra, you can’t cheat here by using a different element,” she said, measured and deliberately.

“But I’m the Avatar and Reyla has to deal!”

“You may be the Avatar,” I yelled back at Korra, “but you didn’t do anything to earn it.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t do anything to earn being a prodigy either!” I’m sure she retorted with the first thing that came to her mind. We’ve heard that word used a lot by the grownups around the compound, but neither of us knew what it meant. 

Katara sat down on a mound of snow and put Korra on her knee, “Well, this is practice. And in practice we sometimes tie one part of ourselves down, so the other parts we’re training can get stronger. If you use your strength to overcome her weakness in practice, your weakness cannot get stronger, and in life, we are only ever as strong as our weaknesses.”

Korra cast her eyes down to her fingers thoughtfully, the twiddling reflecting what must have been the turning of wheels in her head. 

“Practice means honing your weakness to overcome her strength.”

That was my first lesson in sparring. 

Eventually the snowballs would turn into bullets of ice; the bullets would turn into cannonballs; and the cannonballs would turn into daggers of ice. But I would be ready for them all.


	3. The Moon

The five foundational forms of waterbending are: the droplets, the wave, the whirlpool, the tide, and the ocean. 

The first form is the droplet. Do not look down on the humble droplet, for it is the droplets over a thousand years that can put a dent even in the strongest rock. 

The second form is the wave. It is the most obvious show of power by water. But its power is greatest if it flows in the same direction that your target intends. 

The third form is the whirlpool. It is the most admired form of water, for its beauty and for its element of surprise for anyone hapless enough to be caught inside. 

The fourth form is the tide. Its power is often underestimated because it takes its time. But all who know the tides are aware that they have been known to beach the great elephant-koi. 

The fifth and final form is the ocean. It is a vast expanse, an unfathomable mystery that can turn into any of the other four in a moment’s notice. But it is also a void which reflects the other back to himself. The height of skill a waterbender can achieve is to become this void – unknowable and nothing, but all. 

We were told we are old enough to have our own rooms now, so Korra and I need no longer share. She has finished her waterbending training, and they have commenced her earthbending training. Of course, she still lived on the premises, they simply brought the master in from the Earth Kingdom. But I rarely saw her these days. She trains at earthbending for eight hours a day, has dinner with her parents and retreats right away to her room, exhausted from the day. I imagine earthbending must be hard, both literally and figuratively. Imagine waterbending with nothing but ice! Must take a lot out of you. 

These days, Master Katara had me doing advanced waterbending and healing methods. 

Healing requires a certain sensitivity which assumes that you have already mastered the sensation of your own chi. How can you feel someone else’s chi if you are not sure of your own? 

“Knowing yourself, and knowing the other, all battles are won this way,” Master Katara often repeated, “whether the foe is an enemy, or an ailment.”

With Korra gone I kept to myself more. Outside of lessons I retreated silently to my own room. It was this way for I don’t know how many days. But it seemed I had not spoken in months. 

One night I lay in bed unable to sleep. I focused on the moonlight illuminating the foot of my bed – it glistened as though it were snow. I followed its pale streams upward toward the window where they flowed from a full moon, milky-white, hanging amply on the horizon. My eyes trailed downwards and I thought of home and wondered what my parents were doing this very moment. Placidly slumbering I bet.

I began to cry. 

I raised my head to gaze at the moon once again, but there was a girl instead, older than I, 16 perhaps. She had a Water Tribe complexion but her hair was silver-white. She was beautiful like a princess. 

“Tell me, Reyla, what exciting new thing did you learn today?” she asked, as if anything I could have said would have been the most delicious news she’d heard in a thousand years. 

“Well, since I’ve learned to sense my own chi, Master Katara is teaching me to feel other people’s chi. It’s the start of learning how to heal them, to put them back together if they’re broken. I’d like to know how to fix broken people.”

“And do you know the basic forms?”

“Yes I do.”

“Well, I’ll tell you a secret: sensing someone’s chi is just like sensing your own. It’s simply a chi that’s outside yourself – just like you can sense the presence of water. But it’s different from the pure element simply because the water in a person changes flow far more quickly than it would as a pure element. A person’s emotions can affect their flow of chi. But it’s nothing more than simply a flow – and I bet you know all about that!” 

“I do,” I smiled to myself, comforted by her presence; comforted by her company. 

She drew close by my bedside and we got to talking. She had seen the world change quickly over the 70-odd years after the war, with the advent of engines and machines, but people remain the same. The greed, the oppression, the clash of wills has not changed. I asked if she was like the Avatar, having seen the world for hundreds of generations, and will see the world for hundreds more. She said no, she was not like the Avatar, but she did meet Avatar Aang. She also knew Master Katara, back when Master Katara was just a girl. She said she had seen the world for perhaps a generation, but wouldn’t say for certain if she would see it for hundreds more. She kept the tides on their up-and-down courses, and she watched humans in the ebb and flow of their desires and wills, courses of human history that were inevitable like a river that does what it would by the pull of gravity – it rolls along in one direction.

We talked and talked until it was time for her to leave, when the sun was about to rise. That night I became conscious of a particular vigor during that time of the month, the time of the full moon. It was then that she would visit and we would giggle and trade secrets – I would share what it was like to be me, a girl with girlish thoughts and hopes and dreams; and she would share the secrets of Tui and La.


	4. No Steam without Fire

Korra had just concluded earthbending training, and so her firebending training recently commenced. I imagine firebending must be so counter-intuitive for a native of the Water Tribe, but by what I’ve seen of her in the courtyard, she seems to be a natural. 

Today was a particularly rough session, and seeing her stumbling back to our living quarters, I offered to help her recover. I had a free evening anyway and it was an easy procedure – cooling water over the muscles to reduce inflammation. 

As I rolled the healing water about her, I asked dreamily, “Korra, what does firebending feel like?”

Korra replied, “well, Master Kwonju is not very good at explaining it in non-firebending terms, but I’ll do my best one waterbender to another. You know how waterbenders can just use their chi to lower their temperature so that water freezes? Well firebenders do the opposite – they use their chi to raise their core temperature until it gets so hot that a flame simply must burst to life.”

I sank into thought, while rolling the water in silence for a little bit longer, “there all done. Could you show me?”

Korra got up off the bed, took a basic stance and did a firefist. Her fist glowed ember and a gentle smoke rose from it. 

Without thinking I shuffled my feet in imitation of the stance, and instead of using my chi to sink my temperature, I consciously pushed it in the opposite direction, in a way I never thought to do before. I broke out into a sweat and with a large exhale, released a puff of steam through my mouth. 

“I can’t believe it!” Korra gasped, “Reyla, are you steambending?!”

* * * * *

That night at dinner it was me, Mama, Papa and Gran-Gran was able to join us too.

I was so bursting with curiosity that I fired off the first thing that came to my mind:   
“Gran-gran, why do you have golden eyes?” 

A pall was cast over the dinner table, a frosty quiet as if death himself swept into the room and sat down next to me. Even Tonraq and Senna at the other table across the room started staring. Korra just continued munching loudly on her dinner. 

Gran-Gran’s lip quivered; she’s at a loss for words, but upon a first attempt at making a sound she started to cry. Papa swooped me off the chair and as I was carried out of the room I could hear Mama trying to comfort Gran-Gran. 

Papa sat me down on the stairs away from the dining room and explained to me that Gran-gran grew up without her own Papa. She was raised by her Mama on her own, who fell pregnant with Gran-Gran right after a violent raid from the Fire Nation on the Southern Water tribe during the 100-year war. 

I understand now why Gran-gran has a Water Tribe face but an ever-so-slightly farer complexion than one would expect. 

* * * * * 

What does steam feel like? Steam is just water when it has energy like fire that makes it blow like air.


	5. The Avatar's Masters

We got a lot of visitors at the compound, important people from all over the 4 nations coming to visit the Avatar. They would come bearing expensive gifts, I’m sure because they wanted some favor or other from her, but, just like me, she’s still a child. I don’t know what they expect from her. Maybe it’s Avatar Things I’ll never understand.

Master Katara never let Korra keep any of it though – masterworks from the finest artisans of the Fire Nation, each piece worth a fortune in itself; holy relics of the Air Nomads that were supposed to be lost in time to unscrupulous bandits but somehow mysteriously turned up in an Earth sage’s possession; tomes of wisdom from scholars and gurus everywhere. She would sell the treasures and use the funds to keep the compound running, making sure everyone living at the compound - bending masters, a modest staff of cooks and servants, and the two students – was well provided for with basic necessities but nothing in excess. I suppose that was the influence of her husband the late Avatar Aang’s – Air Nomads had few material possessions and desired little.

As sure as the cycle of the Avatars, every visit from nobles fell into a predictable pattern. Springtime would herald the arrival of the first callers – because nobody wants to trudge through a Water Tribe winter. It would begin like a festival with a parade – the Important People would swan through the foyer in their finery to flatter her. I don’t think she much enjoyed sitting and listening to many words. I’m sure she’d much rather be outside on the training grounds. That’s where she was most in her element – well, at least three of them I suppose. I would hang by the rails on the top of the stairs gazing over these ministers and nobles and sages in their flowy dresses and funny hats. Finally after a few hours for politeness, Master Katara would gently hint to them that they had made their point and the Avatar would gladly consider their petitions.

After they had departed, Master Katara would have some servants take the gifts that were piled high in the reception hall into a storage backroom, where the things would stay until she could find buyers for them.

Korra was never much interested in the gifts. Her singular purpose as she saw it was to master the elements so that she could protect the world against hostile forces that would disrupt balance and peace. Master Katara never let slip an opportunity to remind Korra that she and Avatar Aang came of age in a time of war, and of the fear they felt as children with the weight of the world on their shoulders of ending it all. She’d never want Korra to ever feel that fear of being powerless against chaos and darkness – and so she must train at bending, that is her sole responsibility; there is nothing else.

Sometimes I would escape into that storage backroom and just explore the gifts. It was like a dragon’s lair in there – statues of jade and marble crusted with pearl and paua shells; pai sho boards of every imaginable design (Korra had no taste for the game); paintings so lifelike you could almost step into them; but my favorite most of all, were the books, because each of them could take you on a different journey, to a different world. There was a volume of the sayings of Guru Laghima transcribed completely in calligraphy. I read that. There was a series of treatises by Avatar Szeto on the efficient running of national logistics. Very boring. But I read that too.

What called out to me though, in that cave of wonders, was an original manuscript of Love Amongst the Dragons. I’ve heard it said that all literature of the Fire Nation that predate it foretold its coming, and all literature from the Fire Nation that came after it derives from it. I don’t know if that’s true, or if it’s something Fire nobles like to throw around to sound intelligent. Everyone knows it as a stage play, even some of us in the Water Tribe have heard of it; but it was originally a poem that goes on for hundreds of pages. If you sound it out when you read it, the words sing – even if you’re not a native of the Fire Nation – the words flow out of you like a stream babbling gently down a hillside – that’s how it makes me feel. But perhaps if you were a Fire native, I imagine it must feel for them like the body of a dragon curling through the air, spiraling one way and then the other, and your eyes surrender to where the flowing body leads. And as it sings to you, you feel this love – precious and fragile; and you are frightened for it because it is so fragile, and it makes you jealous for this love; you guard it, jealously and you are angry at anything that would upset its………..balance. In your anger and fear, you have become the imbalance that you are so afraid of.

The love gives birth to jealousy; and the jealousy gives birth to fear; and the fear gives birth to anger. But anger only wants to be loved, and so must give way to love. The light is born in the darkness, and the darkness gives birth to light; the yin gives way to the yang, and the yang yields to the yin.

Perhaps this poem is not really about dragons at all.

* * * * *

We get a lot of visitors at the compound, and when they’re here I mostly keep out of sight in my quarters, but I’m not above going to get a snack in the kitchen if the need should arise. I could always count on Auntie Sansan who runs the kitchen to let me pilfer from the pots of whatever was being served to the visitors. Sometimes I would stand at the threshold of the kitchen drinking my soup and drinking in the spectacle that was happening in the reception hall. Framed by the kitchen doorway, it looked like a scene from an Earth Kingdom mural.

It was a little game for me, to imagine I was an Earth Kingdom artisan, tasked with painting this scene – how to create a form out of this madness, the cacophony of so many dignified nobles whose meanings behind their florid words betrayed the nobility of their station? Very often their petitions amounted to little more than petty favors dressed up as Matters of Diplomatic Importance. Thanks to the words that Avatar Szeto left behind, I can recognize a Matter of Diplomatic Importance when I see one.

One time during one of these visit-circuses, I was leaning on the kitchen doorframe, drinking my soup, beholding the spectacle, when a man sidled up to me. He was tall, thin and clearly Water Tribe, with a moustache that was long and thin just like his limbs.

“What does it take to get a word in with the Avatar, eh kid?”

I said nothing. Korra and I gab together plenty. I was pretty sure the answer was “you bore her”, but I could only be downstairs at these things as long as I was on my best behavior. 

“What’s your story, Mister?” I genuinely wanted to know. It’s not often I got the chance to hear the complete picture of What Is It They Want.

“Well kid, y’ever heard of lightning bending?”

“I know only the most talented of firebenders can do it.”

“Well see, there’s a firebending master that’s mass-printing these instructionals on how any ole firebender could learn to do it, and he’s MAKING A LOT OF MONEY. And ordinarily, I’d be all for it; he’s a man after my own heart. But there’s also a Fire Nation industrialist who’s planning on building lightning-power plants. If a workforce of lightning benders finds mass employment in a fleet of power plants, they’ll outstrip every engine I can possibly sell! I’d go out of business within the year! I can’t let that happen! Not when I’m just getting started!”

“So what do you want from the Avatar?”

“I need her to declare that lightning bending is immoral! It’s against the natural order! It’s against the Spirits!”

“You know that makes no sense, right Mister?”

“It doesn’t matter if it makes sense! I just need people to believe it!”

“Well, what if you had an engine that was just as good as a lightning-powered plant? What if it were powered by…….not lightning but…….steam!”

“Steam, huh…”, the man floated into thought and twiddled his moustache.

“Steam has the power to push things. Watch,” I bent my soup out of the bowl and directed it toward the crank on the furnace. Raising my chi, I bent the water into steam and tried to make it push the crank. It didn’t budge.

“Ugh, why won’t it do the thing??” I said, exasperated.

The man floated into thought again, “Steam…just might be able to….do the thing…”

We were interrupted by an old man’s grunting in a corner of the house where he thought he was out of the Avatar’s earshot.

“I remember back when the Avatar was decisive in mediating these disputes!” the strained voice came from a man so mummified I was sure he must have been referring to Avatar Roku. The old man was draped in green silks that had the insignia of the Flying Boar embroidered on in gold. He stamped his cane indignantly for emphasis, “back in my day, the Avatar studied statecraft and diplomacy! He had a master for those subjects! It’s the Avatar’s job to broker peace when there is a conflict! That’s what bringing balance is all about! Every stone has its place, and there they should stay! Otherwise, you’re just sand blowing in the wind – a useless desert!”

Thin man heard the words, considered the gaggle of Earth sages surrounded the Avatar, each talking over the others, and decided that jostling in the tiny pool of Avatar Attention Feeding Frenzy was not worth his time. With a clip of his fancy shiny shoes, he and his assistant slipped out like a fine morning mist.

* * * * *

Brokering peace. I had never heard that word before. I had only heard talk of “bringing peace” in the house, in the context of “if the Fire Lord (or any world leader for that matter) brings war with an army, you bring peace with your Avatar State”. Brokering peace, that sounded like a different peace altogether.

There’s a game that Korra and I liked to play: we would each take turns to wear a blanket or a fur as a cape and stand on the highest thing we could find at the moment – furniture, a snow mound, anything – and make up a heroic speech that always starts with “I am the terror that flaps in the night” and ends with “I am Avatar Kyoshi”:

“I am the terror that flaps in the night.

I am the failure of diplomacy;

Beyond me there is no escalation of hostilities–

Yangchen isn’t here right now;

I am,

Avatar Kyoshi.”

and after the final line we would jump off the high pedestal and land with as mighty a thud as our -comparatively tiny – feet could manage.

Come to think of it, I had never managed to complete the play. Each time it was my turn, I would trip over my lines, the words would not come quickly enough, or I would lose my footing on the pedestal prematurely, or simply be convulsed in fits of laughter at a speech that Korra had so brilliantly performed. In short, I have never once managed to utter the words “I am Avatar Kyoshi”.

Diplomacy seemed to be the game that grownups at these visits played where the prize was the attention of the Avatar, or sometimes it was the location of a border between lands, or sometimes it was getting the other party to say “sorry”. The prize was ever-changing like the images on a riverbed. It was a game with rules that were far different to sparring with the elements. In the game of diplomacy, there are different ways to knock your opponent down, and sometimes they don’t even know they’ve been knocked down enough to admit defeat when they should.

In every generation, there can only be one Avatar. And if you’re not the Avatar, your chances of winning a game would be higher if they didn’t involve the bending of the elements. A master of an element was someone who could bend the element to their will. That would mean that a master of the Avatar was someone who could bend the Avatar to their will. Imagine, the power of that bending ability would be incalculable. I can see why being an Avatar’s master was such a coveted prize.

Korra had already mastered Water and Earth, so those roles of waterbending master and earthbending master were already set in stone, or frozen in place so to speak. It goes without question that Master Katara – by virtue of of who she was to Korra in a past life - would have an unshakable place in Korra’s heart. But Korra was still working through the element of fire yet, so the place of the firebending master was far from secure, and of this Master Kwonju was well aware.

Fire nobles play diplomacy with a slow burn – it is silent and deadly. A turn of phrase, a look askance, the slightest deviation from finely choreographed politesse in the wrong context could cast the plague of dishonor on you and your household. I noticed these little jabs at Master Kwonju’s worthiness to be the Avatar’s firebending master coming from the odd Fire noble, bursting with ambition to climb the social ladder – it was the ones that were was not dispatched directly from Royal Caldera City whose ambition burned the hottest. The little jabs would flicker and Master Kwonju skillfully danced around them with his words. But his pulse would quicken – I could always hear it throbbing spasmodically from across the room – and his bloodflow was all a frenzy, sometimes for days before and after the encounter. It seemed there were more days that he was afraid, than days where he was at peace. His was consumed by unending fear that the Avatar would be taken away from him. And it wore on his constitution. His inner fire is not as strong as I’d learned to expect from a firebender, certainly one as expert as he. In fact his chi was far too cold. He did not live long after declaring Korra as having mastered firebending.

I slept with the copy of Love Amongst the Dragons – no it’s not a copy, it’s the original manuscript – by my pillow. On nights when I cannot fall asleep and Yue does not visit, the book kept warm. Korra knew I had taken the book, but she didn’t bat an eyelid.

That’s not the only book I’ve taken from the storage backroom. I would disappear there for hours on end only to be discovered many times by servants, while I was holed up in there to read, and Master Katara knows it, but still does not lock it up.

* * * * *

We get a lot of visitors at the compound, and many of them extend invitations for Korra to be an honored guest in the grandest place of their home nation: Royal Caldera City, Ba Sing Se, Agna Qel’a, the Air Temples at various locations, but for whatever reason, she has never left the compound.

There is an old saying that reading ten thousand books is like embarking on ten thousand journeys.

Come to think of it, books were the only gifts that accumulated in the storage backroom. Statues, paintings, pai sho boards and other rarities came and went, but books got arranged in neat rows on shelves there.

Yet Korra spent every waking moment outside with bending training, and her progress was fast.


	6. Thicker than Water

**Chapter 7: Thicker than Water**

The learned men of the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom measure time by the cycle of the sun through the sky – one cycle gives one day and one night. The Air Nomads thought this made sense too. But to us in the Water Tribes, this was not a terribly good way of keeping time, because in the Winter the sun does not make its arching path through the sky as one would expect in a cycle, and in the Summer the sun would stay far too long in the sky. This is why the Avatar Calendar, measured in days, does not make much sense to us Water Tribe folk. We prefer to measure time by the cycle of the moon – her cycle of waxing and waning was much more regular and certain for us.

At the height of her cycle, the moon caused water to tingle with more energy – all water, no matter where it was. Yue told me that If I paid close attention, I could feel that the tingles were more, well, tingly during this time than at other times in the cycle, and like any good waterbender, your strength is not in throwing larger and larger rocks, or hotter and hotter fires, or the most blustery of winds. Your strength was being able to concentrate the tingles already existing in the water and channel the tingles towards the direction you will – the direction of your yi.

With Korra gone to Republic City to pursue airbending, Yue became the one I talked most with about bending. I hung on every word she had to say, and even after she leaves for the night, I turned her words in my mind even when the sun comes up. I turned the words throughout the day. And without Korra’s feistiness filling the hallways of the Avatar’s mansion, in the silence of the day I mostly heard Yue’s words in my head, and the pulses of everyone else at the mansion. During the height of Yue’s power in the cycle, I felt the tingles, and I heard the pulses much louder.

The sound of Master Kwonju’s pulse still haunted me. I could still hear it staggering wretchedly along and fluttering in and out of existence long before his breath expired, long before his body returned to the earth.

Is this the way with benders? First your native element goes, and the rest of you follows?

I could not shake the feeling that I could perhaps have done something about Master Kwonju. We do listen for pulses at the healing center, but it was as if his blood was crying for help, in a way that only my ears heard. And now I cannot ignore the sound of any pulse. 

I didn’t know why I was afraid to ask, but I finally worked up the courage, “Master Katara, can you tell me about the tingling of the blood during the full moon?”

The reply I got was the most hideous look of mortification I’ve ever seen on Master Katara, as if I had blasphemed the Spirits and took a piss on her mother’s grave. The look pierced me like a mother’s rejection – a dagger in the heart. She spat these words out with palpable suffocating venom: “you will never think about bending and blood in the same thought, do you understand? You will never speak to me again of bending and blood in the same breath, do you understand?”

***

It’s impossible not to think of bending and blood in the same thought. I’m not the Avatar, so bending means water, and blood is water, in a way. But I would do as she ordered, and never speak to her of it again.

During the full moon sometimes the pulses would be so loud I would not be unable to sleep, and I would patter down to the kitchen while the servants quietly put things away for the night. I would sit with a cup of warm buffalo-yak milk and just listen to their pulses, trying to sense which way the blood was flowing, and how fast, and was it supposed to be there at this point in the cycle. I would just sit and listen and feel the tingles.

As the moons wore on, it came to be that I did not need the full moon to amplify the pulses or the tinglings – I could just hear that if I paid enough attention.

* * * * *

I was at the age where Katara had been declared a master, and so she said I was old enough to help her with patients who came in for healing. She was getting on in years so it made sense. She left most of the work to me, and instructed to come get her only if a problem was too complicated for me to solve.

A patient came in one day claiming he was in a hunting accident weeks ago – gored by a wild buffalo-yak and lucky to be alive - that he thought he had recovered from, but he had only grown weaker over time. I examined his body for surface wounds but his injury site seemed to be recovered as expected. The absence of surface wounds was very mysterious indeed. Healing water rolled around was not going to help much. I needed to look beneath the surface.

“I’m about to try something very unorthodox. Do you trust me?”

“If Master Katara trusts you, then so do I.”

Technically she did.

I placed my hands at the accupoints close to the site of the injury and sank into my dantian. Using our contact points as a conduit, I channeled my chi from my dantian through my meridians into his meridians, like a workman riding a bicycle along a road to make sure it was paved smoothly. The flow of energy certainly was not smooth – a bit of traveling and my energy fell into a large sinkhole in his meridian that was sucking up energy insatiably. I disattached my palms before I could be drained further.

He was bleeding internally.

“Sir, did you by any chance pick a fight with a firebender?”

“How did you…….guess?”

“You have an internal injury that is consistent with a firebender’s imploding fist technique. I’ve seen the Avatar’s firebending master demonstrate it on a snow-wolf carcass. It leaves no mark on the surface, because all the damage it inflicts is internal.”

He confessed that he had gotten into a drunken brawl with one of his hunting compatriots, a firebender and the only foreigner in the group. He thought he had got the better of his challenger, and therefore did not think it worth mentioning. Now, however, he probably might want to avoid mentioning the confrontation out of embarrassment. I knew from his face that he would rather not mention his indiscretion to someone as venerable as Master Katara.

“Can you fix it with healing water?”

“Ask me the question again, but leave out ‘with healing water’.”

“Can you fix it?”

“I can try. Do you trust me?”

“If Master Katara trusts you, I trust you.”

I placed my hands at accupoints that were closer to the site of the bleeding, and just like any waterbender stops stream in mid-flow, I stopped the flow of blood through the injury site. I held it there as long as I could, waiting for the part of his body that was made of earth to close itself up the way it had been wanting too. Holding it there was very taxing and I broke into a trembling sweat, but I maintained until his body did the thing.

* * * * * 

I eagerly followed the progress of events regarding the Equalist uprising in Republic City through the newspapers. It’s funny how chaos on the continent an ocean away can still be so unsettling where you are. Are there secret Equalists in the Water Tribe? The papers seemed to describe them as fringe crazies, but judging by how they had managed to infiltrate a probending arena and hold everyone in there all hostage, their numbers may be more than they let on, and the national security of Republic City is sleeping on the issue. Now when I walked down into town to get supplies for the compound I found myself suspicious of everyone on the street.

The papers printed these interviews with Equalist members which I read with much interest: what is it they’re fighting for? They claim that the system of government is oppressive of nonbenders, and they are merely fighting for their right to be seen as equal to benders. But have the non-benders been underprivileged in any way? I knew of no laws that separate benders from nonbenders – we all share the same spaces and the same ways of living. They claimed that the rate of incarceration of non-benders is higher than of benders to argue oppression, but they neglected to mention this is only true in small villages with unsophisticated law-enforcement – catching a nonbender is simply easier than catching a bender. They decry that they are treated as second-class citizens because businesses have concessions that cater to the needs of benders, but I don’t know of any businesses whose services exclude nonbenders. But then again, as a bender perhaps it’s something I have no way of understanding.

Did I worry for Korra? I had seen her single-handedly take down a team of elite firebenders at her graduation test. But if the Equalists had managed to evade the elite metalbending police squads of Republic City and take an entire probending arena hostage, perhaps they had secret weapons that needed to be countered with a strategy other than bending. Rumor was they had a weapon that could take away a bender’s abilities, but it was only a rumor. The papers also mentioned that the police found mecha weapons at the scenes. How do you counter anti-bending with bending? Doesn’t that just add to zero? How do you counter man-made mech with the forces of nature? The old saying goes – you can’t fight fire with fire and knowing Korra, she would literally try to do that. Air feeds fire, fire feeds earth, fire yields to water, energy feeds mecha weapons, and mecha weapons yield to… what, exactly? Korra will have to figure that out. I hope she has an alchemist on her side. Or someone who knows about mechas.

I kept to my work at the healing center dutifully. Master Katara would just read the news every day, or listen to the broadcasts on the radio and sigh at the state of affairs. But every day I kept my guard up in case Equalist locals decide to unceremoniously bomb the healing center with Molotov cocktails and decry this place as a lair of bending abominations.

* * * * *

I was there the day they took Korra back South to seek Katara’s help in restoring her bending. I was silent in the room as Katara tried all ways and means of diagnosing her: healing water, meditiations. I just sat in the corner and listened to her pulse. It didn’t sound the same as Master Kwonju’s. Korra’s seemed to quiver with fatigue; like when you hold a bending stance too long and your structure is ready to collapse, with every attempt to bend her pulse was straining against all hope to move the chi along. It was strange that the power of air had not been taken from her, when all others had. What was different about air that it did not succumb? Air is the element of freedom…..perhaps she had unlocked a newfound sense of freedom in herself?... Unlocked or…..unblocked? That’s it! Now, fire is the element of will, water is the element of change, and earth is the element of survival. Could it be that those chakras are blocked??

I was lost in thought, also terrified of speaking at all, when she left the room in a fit of grief. She murmured something to the people outside and ran away.

* * * * *

By the time she returned she had her bending restored and tapped into the Avatar State for the first time. It all made sense now: Katara had told me the story of how Aang worked with a guru on unblocking all his chakras in order to access the Avatar State; an Avatar cannot access the state unless they have let go of fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, deception, illusion and earthly attachment. And the release came all because she got bloodbe-

I’m not allowed to say it.

* * * * *

We were on the shore by the ocean after she had restored the Chief’s bending.

“Korra, now that you’re a fully realized Avatar, would you do something for me?” I asked.

“What is it?” She turned to me with those curious big blue eyes.

“THINK FAST!!” I yelled as I hurled a sharp wave at her from the ocean which she deflected with ease. “And do not hold back.” I warned.

I knew first and foremost that the ground we stood on wasn’t exactly glacier – it was earth. So I had to be careful of my footing, because against an earthbender, this could betray me. A rock may stop fire, or the flow of a stream, so I knew I needed to use the philosophy of air to overcome the earth. For structures that are hard and unyielding, I needed to flow around them like wind around a rock. I kept my steps light – the bow to false stance transition was helpful in this regard – so that I was prepared when she launched a seismic blast on the ground meant to destabilize me.

Then came the boulders hurtling through the air at me and I was ready, because water has this in common with air – it just flows around the obstacle. A new obstacle comes, but it also brings with it a new path around. Like water like air, I rode my jet stream, finding my paths easily around these boulders, like an airbender floating like a leaf through the training gates.

I do not have Korra’s raw power to adopt a fighting style that aims to overwhelm the opponent. Instead I adopt the style of surgical precision: get up close and slice the tendons, metaphorically speaking. For that I needed to close the distance, and I was a stream flowing around boulders, right toward Korra. I needed to get so close to her that there was no way she could put earth between us, and thus force her use a different element.

The combat arts are really just a dance of creating space and closing the distance. Sometimes the attacker has to create space for their attack to work, and the defender has to close the distance to neutralize the attack, and if the defender was smart, would launch an attack that works at short range so that their opponent would now have to create space in order to neutralize the attack.

I was almost to within arm’s length of her when as a last ditch, she stomped on the ground, and a large pedestal of rock shot up right beneath my feet, threatening to catapult me in the air. The same way an airbender senses a breeze on the back of their shaven head, my feet sensed the tremor of earth as it shot up. I bent my knees deep, and flowing with the energy, used the my momentum gained from the rock to flip over Korra’s head – within arm’s length of her.

The bright glow of firefists telegraphed what was coming next.

The furious flurry of fire fists and crescent kicks came down mercilessly. My hands each grew a boxing glove of ice and I launched my attacks. Jab, cross, hook, circle, parry, sink, slash – the glove could become a blade as needed. Every fire fist or fire foot met an ice shield instead of its target that melted and steamed just so, leaving the original targets – my face, my body, my limbs – unburnt and unbroken. I was like the earth – hard, cold, unyielding.

Some masters – particularly firebenders – criticize the neutral jing strategy of combat as having the weakness of being reactionary – you are always playing catchup. But I think they misunderstand the neutral jing strategy. You don’t react *when* your opponent launches an attack. You react *once* you know *how they intend* to attack, with an attack/defense combination that neutralizes their attack and exploits the opening within the attack – and all attacks leave openings. These are quite different things. And the faster you figure out *how* they intend to attack, the faster you can beat them to the punch – or the bend, so to speak.

To disrupt her fire lines of attack I pulled tentacles of water out of the ocean perpendicular to the line of attack that connected me and Korra. I froze them in place, creating now a horizontal forest of ice that would give her three choices: she could counterbend the water, which would lead to a zero sum endgame of mutual counterbending; she could blast through all the ice with a dragon breath, which would bring us back to square one, or she could continue weaving through them trying to find an opening to strike me, same as I was doing to her. 

Seems she chose the latter, weaving deftly like air through the frozen obstacle course I had thrown up as I pressed forward. I closed the distance, and like so many earthbenders like to do, I threw up walls to box her into a space with me, except these were walls of ice.

Then Korra’s fists and feet stopped flaming, but they still kept coming. I knew what that meant – imploding fist technique. I couldn’t believe it. She would not! Well, I guess I had told her not to hold back so my demise would be all on me. I threw up ice shields at deceptive locations on my body– false targets – so they would dissipate the concussive energy stored in the fist. The momentum kept up: one, two, one, two, one, two, three…

Korra sensed this combat at close quarters was not going anywhere. She needed to create space. She whipped water from the ocean and sent the massive streams toward me. I bent them away from me and pressed on, insisting on closing the distance. Waterbenders often fight in large arcs, because they rely on the timing of the oncoming momentum of attack to counterattack, or the timing of gravity (which is always a wildcard). Firebenders attack in comparatively straight lines. A fire line of attack, could just be the ticket to beating a water line of attack, literally, to the punch. I pressed more ferociously on, trying to close more distance. One-two-three, one-two, one-two….

Now Korra felt the need to create even more space. A dragon’s breath exploded from her in a great plume of flame many times taller than either of us, decimating all the ice I had created. I was thrown back. Her hands circled above her head and a cyclone of fire and air whipped around with her at the center, catching me and swirling me upwards. Further away, the flame dissipated but the air currents were strong. She then directed the cyclone forwards and I was sent away in a helical motion, but this sensation did not feel foreign to me…. in fact it felt familiar…. It felt like a surf. Being near the ocean, the moist air made it easy to catch water vapor on my feet to ride on the waves of air – being head under heels doesn’t mean being unbalanced; you just have to know where your center is.

By now she had pushed me 50 meters away.

I had begun to sense a particular stiffness building in Korra’s attacks – her transitions between elements became more jagged. It was a sign that she was tensing up and perhaps less sure of herself at this point. She was beginning to rely on raw power in order to beat me. First a huff of breath, then she squeezed her eyes shut. I knew what would come once she opened them – they glowed with a bright blue light – and the fury of all 4 elements would come bearing down on me.

A tsunami 20-meters high rose out of the ocean to my left – there was no way I could outrun it either away from her, or towards her. To my right was a wall of flame as high and deep as the tsunami. The earth beneath me swirled so that there was no way I could launch myself into the ocean and reemerge from it. A gale from above forced me to my knees. With the earth and the air perfectly opposed in their direction, their force amounted to zero. The water and the fire closed in on me from the sides. Their force would amount to zero right at the center so that’s where I had the greatest chance of surviving this. The water and the fire would turn to steam right there at the center, so all I had to do was make sure I wouldn’t be boiled alive.

I braced myself, and as the water and fire collided, I sank my body temperature by exactly the difference between that of human body and that of boiling water, at exactly the same speed at which the steam was being generated. I was surrounded by a rushing steam, furiously hissing and expanding, and as it did, it pushed on the air stream from above until – crack – the steam burst through the cold air current and sent shockwaves outward. Peeking from behind the defensive X-frame I made with my forearms, I could see the cloud of steam mushrooming 20 meters high above me. At that moment, Korra’s eyes stopped glowing, and she knelt on the ground in exhaustion.

I too collapsed on the ground in exhaustion, limbs splayed out, trying to catch my breath.

After what must have been about forever of heaving and staring into the sky contemplating life, I propped myself on my forearms and crawled towards her. My limbs were jelly. Crawling is easier if you alternate it with rolling. Crawl, roll, crawl, roll. It was probably eternity before I made it right beside her and retched at the ground a little before turning over and plopping down.

“You could have killed me back there.” I said, wiping the dribble from my mouth.

She turned to me with those big blues and a smile crooked with mischief, “but did you die?”

“HAH!” erupted from me. We both turned to face the sky.

“You know, you didn’t do anything to earn being the Avatar.”

“And you didn’t do anything to earn being a prodigy.”

I laughed right from the belly, and she did the same just as heartily.

We may not share the same parents, but we were thicker than water.


	7. Republic City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmhmm  
> NUKTUK!  
> He’s the biggest bravest bendingest man I know…”

Shortly after the Glacier Spirits Festival in the South, upon the invitation of Korra, Master Tenzin and his wife Pema furnished me with a room on Air Temple Island during my vacation, my first ever journey beyond the borders of the Southern Water Tribe, in Republic City. It was known as the City where people of all nations could come to seek their fortune or reinvent themselves, regardless of their station.

My first night there I was so excited I could not sleep. The air was warm so I shed my fur-trimmed tunics for a light tank top and airy bottoms and stepped out into the courtyard that opened into the view of the water: across the strait was the shimmering skyline of Republic City. It was a young moon that night with many stars hanging about like suitors come to flatter her. I could always count on the Ocean and the Moon to give me a sense of calm and reassurance – they were with me no matter how far from home I might be.

“Can’t sleep?” Korra’s crisp, ever chipper voice was unmistakable in the darkness of a moonlit courtyard. The stars and the skyline lent some of their glow to her face.

I cocked my head towards her, “I sleep-walked here. I’m also sleep-talking right now,” I left an exaggerated pause hoping she would catch my drift, “to make a sleep-joke.”

We both laughed.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” I sighed with admiration, gesturing towards the City skyline, “it’s so different! But also peaceful and beautiful.”

“It wasn’t always like this,” Korra said. 

The dark turn in her voice piqued my intrigue.

“I saw the history of how I – Aang – established the City. The idea was that it could be a place where people of all nations could come, unbound to the expectations of their native culture, where they could find balance within themselves by becoming neighbors with those from other nations. But you know how sometimes in order to balance a scale you have to move stuff from one side of the scale over to the other side?”

In our entire decade of friendship this was the first time I had ever heard Korra wax philosophical. Perhaps gaining the wisdom of centuries was an added benefit of the Avatar State. “I guess so,” I replied, a cue that I was hanging on every word. 

“The historical texts of the Fire Nation say that the land on which Republic City stands belonged to the Fire Nation. But they do not mention that it came to be Fire Nation because of a conquest of Earth Kingdom territories during the 100-year war. The specific invasion called ‘The Rape of Tienhai’ by Northern Earth Kingdom folk.”

She paused while I visibly flinched at the name. She was sensitive to the fact of the Fire Nation Invasions’ involvement of my family history, and checked that that I hadn’t been triggered before going on:

“Fire Lord Zuko would sooner forget this name, so branded by sins of his forefathers, but it persists in the memory of the land; the blood-soaked earth birthed spirits which would in turn feed on the chi of any Fire Nationals who settled on the land, such that no firebenders have been born to Fire Nationals settled in the area for the last 100 years. The spirits considered their feeding on the chi to be suitable restitution for the aggressions of the Fire Nation. They expressed as much to Aang. But Earth King Kuei was resolved to take the land back for the Earth Kingdom.

Aang knew that any military action on the land of Tienhai will be met with hostility from the spirits, and tried to warn the Earth King as much. But Earth King Kuei did not listen. Spurred by the need to redeem himself for the invasion of Ba Sing Se during the 100 year war, he sent his forces to occupy the Tienhai.

The spirits did not differentiate between human armies – they simply fought back when the Earth Kingdom soldiers marched in, protecting the Fire Nationals and Earth Kingdom citizens alike who lived in Tienhai.

The Earth King’s forces were beaten back, but back in Ba Sing Se he blamed his defeat on Fire Lord Zuko’s intervention and used the Dai Li to begin a whisper campaign that Aang sided with the Fire Nation on account of his close friendship with Lord Zuko. Soon discontent spread among the Earth Kingdom that the Avatar was not being impartial in international matters.

Aang devised a solution he hoped would strike balance between the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and the Spirits – the land shall belong to no one, but become a separate Republic with their own government. They will be sovereign as a separate Nation, except they shall not maintain their own military force. This measure was to ensure that no leader could take advantage of this new national power to upset the balance of the world.

Lord Zuko agreed and the Earth King grudgingly also: they signed a treaty but the popular opinion in the Earth Kingdom was that Lord Zuko influenced the secession of Tienhai from the unified Earth Kingdom.

All this is to say, Republic City lives under a peace that is but tenuous. And the tiniest international provocation could upset the stability of this City-State.

“Other nations can take care of themselves, but as the Avatar, I feel personally responsible for Republic City, almost like it’s a snowglobe with the Four Nations in it, you know?” She looked to me for reassurance. I nodded in reply with a knowing look.

“It’s like a little experiment, a shining beacon on a hill to model for the Four Nations what peace and balance could look like,” I reiterated to double-reassure her that I got it. Korra had never looked more beautiful than when she was lost in deep thoughts. There was nothing more I could say that might alleviate her Heavy Avatar Responsibilities. The corners of my mouth pulled into a sympathetic smile and squeezing her arm, I said, “I’m sure you’ll do a good job,” we always understated things with each other.

Despite my best efforts to suppress it, a massive yawn erupted from my face.

“You should get some sleep”, Korra said, chuckling, “my friends and I have some epic things planned in the city for you.”

* * * * *

We were lined up in a dimly-lit room and sat down, from left to right: Mako, Korra, me in the middle, Asami, and Bolin. These 3 were the new friends she made in the City: Mako was Korra’s boyfriend, Bolin was his brother, and I was not entirely sure how Asami Sato of The Sato Family ended up hanging out with a bunch of no-family name plebs like us, but she sure was kind, gracious and SO GLAMOROUS that I’m not one to complain.

The room darkened to pitch black and our chatter hushed. The wall we were facing flickered to life with images! Images that were about to tell a story! The stirring introductory music got us all excited.

We were treated to the image of a powerful warrior on the screen: Nuktuk, Hero of the South! The muscles rippling across his perfect proportions left nothing to the imagination, except for the amply hung loincloth, which was all he wore. With his legs planted in a wide stance, his warlike thighs and calves flexing every tendon and sinew, he struck a dynamic pose.

I did a double-take: wait a minute, wasn’t that… the guy sitting not one chair from me? Bolin?? And isn’t he an earthbender?!

Next, the scene cut to Nuktuk standing toe-to-toe with another man, this one in more traditional Water Tribe warrior’s dress sans shirt, also to show off an athletic build, although decidedly less impressive than Nuktuk.

“Nuktuk,” says the other warrior in a loud and affected manner, “you are the greatest warrior the Southern Water Tribe has ever known! But my lady has dumped me for you! So now I must DUEL YOU FOR HER HEART!”

Nuktuk meets the man’s defiant gaze with his own righteous indignation and replies, just as loudly and affectedly, “You may be my brother in bending training, but I cannot stand by while you threaten to rip out a fair maiden’s heart! THINK FAST VILE VILLAIN!”

With a series of unnecessarily elaborate waves of his hands that aren’t even real waterbending postures, Nuktuk ‘waterbends’ a wave at the Villain. There is a long lag between Nuktuk’s movements and the water coming forward, almost as if whoever did the effects didn’t time them right.

The wave comes crashing upon the Villain, knocking him over so that he is completely prone.

Getting up and dusting himself off, the Villain declares loudly to the audience, “I may not have the raw bending power of Nuktuk, but I am a prodigy who uses my wits and inspiration from the four elements in my waterbending! According to my calculations, Nuktuk needs 2.5 seconds to recover from his first attack before he can launch a second! It is now that I must strike!”

The Villain jet-runs toward Nuktuk and smacks two water-filled bags, one in each hand, at Nuktuk’s face. The impact of the jiggling water bags causes Nuktuk’s cheeks to whiplash around his striking manly jaw.

Our Hero of the South stumbles backward but strikes another power pose, quipping, “that water’s gonna have to come in bigger jugs to stop Nuktuk!”, before waving his hands again convolutedly. A dump of ice cubes falls from above the frame onto the Villain, who dances around them with bouncing flitting footwork, as though he were a fairy. Every grunt of exertion, every contorted facial expression is just delayed enough from the action that instigated it, that feels as though the characters are acting different plays.

Finally with an exaggerated curl of his biceps, Nuktuk brings up a giant tsunami that comes crashing out of nowhere onto the Villain. As the tsunami subsides, the Villain lays prone on the shore, and Nuktuk drops to his knees from exhaustion but raises his fists into the air in triumph. Both men are panting heavily with sweat gleaming on their naked torsos.

The Villain manages to get on all fours and crawl across the shore to Nuktuk, where he collapses next to our Hero of the South. They lay heaving next to one another for a while, until the Villain turns to Nuktuk and says, “you are truly the greatest hero the South has ever known, Nuktuk. I shall withdraw and never bother you and your lady ever again!”

Nuktuk turns to the Villain, and declares, “she is her own independent woman, and so she will decide for herself!”

The scene fades into the title card that signalled “The End”.

Four of us whooped and clapped out of politeness, and Bolin seemed to lap up the attention.

Curtains fell over the screen and the lights went up. A man appeared from behind the curtains: tall, thin, clearly Water Tribe with a thin moustache. I couldn’t believe it! I’ve seen him before!

“So, how did you guys like it? It’s my prototype of a new form of storytelling I’d like to call…MOVERS!”

I doubt Thin Man recognized me from all those years ago at the house.

“Asami, I gotta thank you for bringing your friends in today, it’s just the demographic I need for a FOCUS GROUP! NOT TO MENTION THE AVATAR! Why, her review alone will SUPERCHARGE TICKET SALES! ZhuLi, TAKE NOTES.”

“Um, it’s pretty fun!” Korra laughed nervously. I was eager to hear how she’d describe the waterbending, but instead she said, “I feel like I’ve seen something like this before…. In the Fire Nation….”

“IMPOSSIBLE!” said Thin Man, “Varri-Movers International is a one-of-a-kind pioneering venture!”

“Maybe it was a dream then.” Korra laughed nervously again. Mako cocked a well-manicured eyebrow.

“Maybe the water could look a bit more…watery?” I offered, “also, we didn’t get to see the lady Bolin was fighting over. What does she look like? What kind of lady would you fight over, Bolin?” I really wanted to know.

Bolin was about to answer smugly when Thin Man cut him off, “we haven’t hired an actress yet, since we’re still in the workshopping stage, but probably a BOMBSHELL who’s curvy but thin, sexy but innocent, someone who can be your mother AND a whore!”

Bolin’s lips puckered in preparation to protest but Thin Man cut him off again, “AND BOLIN, NO MORE AD-LIBBING! Come on! Independent women who make their own decisions?? Who’s gonna buy THAT?!”

Korra, Asami and I stared blankly at one another. Thin Man left the room flustered and barked indistinct orders at his assistant.

“Soooo…lunch?” suggested Asami.

Everyone nodded.

* * * * *

After lunch, Asami was off to tend to some business. I followed Korra to the Republic City Probending Stadium Arena. It was a weekday afternoon so there were no games going on just yet. We crossed the gym, our footsteps echoing all the way up to the high ceiling where the sunlight was streaming though the windows. There was a flight of wooden stairs in the far corner of the gym that may as well have been a ladder into a secret spire of the Arena. Up we climbed, higher and higher, with the gym getting smaller and smaller. The stairs creaked slightly underfoot.

Finally we reached a door above our heads. Korra pounded on it and it opened and we climbed into what appeared to be an attic apartment – the humble abode of the bending brothers, Mako and Bolin.

“Hey,” Mako greeted us both and kissed Korra on the lips.

The bending brothers were both in homey white tanktops and shorts. There was a radio on, with a program on the latest sports news playing.

“Wow, the Varrick Global Industries Narwhal-Aardvarks really took the pro-bending world by storm huh. Really impressive winning streak considering they’re new on the scene!” said Korra.

“Yeah, well, y’know, if you have the bottomless pockets of Varrick, you can just buy the best players to form a dream-team, so it’s not surprising they’re on top,” Mako pointed out.

“I don’t know much about pro-bending,” I admitted gingerly, “but that team name is kind of a mouthful.”

“They really don’t like being referred to by their nickname though, the VGINAs,” said Bolin nudging me and winking.

Everyone in the room burst out laughing.

“Hey, so you wanna explain pro-bending to me a little?” I said, nudging Bolin back, just as Korra and Mako made their way over to the privacy of the sofa in the corner of the room. Bolin and I sat down at the small dinner table with the radio on. The mention of the word “pro-bending” made Bolin’s eyes and hands come alive, and his voice became extra animated.

“OKAY SO YOU SEE, HOW IT WORKS IS, YOU HAVE THREE PLAYERS ON A TEAM, WELL I SUPPOSE IF THERE WERE MORE AIRBENDERS IN THE WORLD THERE WOULD BE FOUR, BUT ANYWAY SO YOU HAVE THREE PLAYERS …”

I don’t think I paid very much attention to his words, exactly. He had eyes of deep emerald green, like a forest at the height of spring; a strong, manly jaw yet a smile that could light up the entire pro-bending arena all on its own, all of which were very distracting to me. I had already seen everything I needed to of his physique from the moverfilm – broad shoulders, rippling torso, biceps like boulders and thighs like tree trunks. He was every bit as dreamy in person as he was projected larger-than-life onto that screen.

A smacking sound brought my thoughts back to the room, audible even with the sound of the radio loudly playing. I turned my head and spied Korra and Mako passionately making out on the sofa in the corner: her hands in his hair and his hands on the small of her back. 

“Let’s give them some privacy,” suggested Bolin, “How’s about I take you to see some pro-bending?”

I smiled excitedly and nodded – did this count as a date?

“The arena looked pretty empty. Is there a game on today?” I asked.

“I’ve got a better idea. I’ll show you _real_ pro-bending!” he said, with a twinkle in his eye.

He really had to stop doing the things with his eyes; they were quickly becoming the things that made me weak at the knees.

We went on foot, strolling through downtown with its shophouses lining the streets and vendors loudly advertising their wares at passers-by: all manner of merchandise some of which I had never seen before in the Water Tribe. Bolin had his hands in his pockets and he walked with the easy confidence of someone who felt at home in these streets. As the sidewalk thronged with people going about their day, I used it as a pretext to slip my arm onto his elbow: “I don’t want to get lost.”

Bolin chuckled good-naturedly.

We got through the section of downtown that was urban-planned in blocks, after it opened into green space with fewer high-rises to block the sun. Toward the center of the park, was a recognizable formation: a pro-bending court of raised earth, with zone lines cleanly burned on the court surface. Around the court, a moat. This public pro-bending practice space was carved out through the unity of the elements of earth, fire and water. A group of kids about my age were playing a pickup game on.

“Wanna try?” Bolin asked me with an enthusiastic grin on his face.

“I’d love to, but looks like they’re even.”

“Next time then,” he said, doing that maddening wink of his.

We stood there watching the game a little bit, with Bolin analyzing the strategy in real time for me exactly like they do on the radio. What an attentive guy he is.

After a couple rounds, the kids called it a day and packed off to go home. The sun was just about to set.

“Wanna get something to eat?” asked Bolin.

I nodded.

We got barbecued meat skewers on the walk back to his place, laughing and joking as we went. He told many riveting stories of pro-bending matches he’d played, and I offered a couple less interesting stories about what it was like to grow up training with the Avatar.

Upon ascending the ladder-stairs up to his apartment, Bolin gave a loud bang on the door, shouting, “y’all decent in there?!”

Mako’s voice could be heard on the other side, muffled through the door, “yeah, just a minute, I’ll be right there!”

Bolin and I waited in silence for a little bit. There seemed to be one-legged fumbling coming from behind the door. I twiddled my fingers, and they in turn twiddled my hair.

“Bolin, this was really fun,” I said, and leaned in to peck him on the cheek.

He put his hands gently on my shoulders, and said, “hey, I thought this was fun too. But I’d like us to just be friends first, okay? You’re a little young for me, and I kind of see you as a little sister. I think that still can be good, right?”

I smiled, and said “okay.”

Korra appeared at the door, and looked at me with those brightly animated eyes of hers, “ready to go home?”

I smiled and waved goodbye to Bolin, who gallantly waved back and bid us both goodnight.

Korra and I returned to Air Temple Island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because who doesn’t love a clip-scene filler episode to laugh at the M Night Shayamalan movie.


	8. Reyla Alone

Combat waterbenders think of the dantian as one’s center of gravity – you launch your chi through it and join it with a body of water to bend the element as an extension of yourself.

Healers know this conception is technically not accurate, although we concede it works well enough for the purposes of combat arts. To a healer, the dantian is technically just below the center of gravity; a guru would call region the sacral chakra, whose element is water. An imbalance in the sacral chakra can manifest as mood swings and depression, coldness and distancing of loved ones, struggling to deal with life’s changes and feeling overwhelmed.

Korra had already been at the South Pole with her parents for over 6 months before she came in to seek Katara’s help to recover from the battle with the Red Lotus. It took every ounce of my willpower to refrain from running to her and throwing my arms around her. She had a vacant stare as she was wheeled in. It was a stare that froze me in place. The stare was sometimes directed at the floor, sometimes it was off in the Spirit Realm.

Katara ran the entire gamut of traditional healing methodologies. Progress was despairingly slow, but Katara was convinced deep in her heart that the healing methods would wear down Korra’s illness the same way that the dripping water would wear down a hunk of ore.

It wasn’t my place to make any suggestions since Katara had assumed full supervision of Korra’s healing process. I watched as almost a year dripped away this way.

Korra would often see visions of things that weren’t there. Katara would constantly reassure her that they were all in her head, as if that would make it better. Just because something is in your head, doesn’t mean it’s not real. Every few nights Korra would wake up screaming in terror. I could hear from my quarters down the hallway. Sleeping was difficult for me because all I could hear at night was the sound of her pulse like the weeping of a child chained up in an underground dungeon so I would lay awake most of the night asking Yue what to do.

Yue did not answer.

One night after some particularly bad terrors, Korra began to sob. As if guided by some other force, I was on my feet and in her room. I held her in my arms, with her head under my chin.

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

There we remained until her furious sobs died down, and her breathing slowed to a calm.

“I don’t want to close my eyes,” she pleaded with tears like icy diamonds that caught the moonlight.

“Alright. I can’t sleep anyway either. Would you like to get some buffalo-yak milk with me?”

She smiled and nodded.

We tread lightly so as not to wake the rest of the house. The kitchen lit up with the fireplace I prepared for heating enough milk to fill two mammoth bone cups. Our shadows danced on the walls to the music of the crackling fire.

I watched as she took a sip, and then a gulp.

“I don’t remember baffalo-yak milk being this good,” she said, smiling a genuine smile that was rare these days, because most of them were forced so as not to disappoint those who meant well to her.

“I may or may not have made it a little more……spirited,” I replied, grinning and materializing a bottle of – well, spirit – with some sleight-of-hand. I swished the liquid about in the bottle for effect.

She chuckled bitterly and stared down at her cup.

I wanted to take her mind off forcing the healing. She was tired. Master Katara was tired. Her parents were tired. Everyone was tired. I tried to make her laugh. I came up with stories of happenings here at the compound while she was away at Republic City, happenings that might amuse her, trivial things whose levity might be a counterpoint to the Heavy Burden The Avatar Has To Bear. I don’t remember how many stories I managed to tell, or how long I managed to cheer her up, but her spirits could not be buoyed for long, and sank back down inevitably like an anchor in the fathoms below.

I put my hand on her knee, “Korra, you must have faith. You will get better eventually.”

“How can you be so sure?” her voice did not thrash now in the same way as it did with Master Katara before. This time it was more like a whimper.

“I don’t…I don’t know. I just think there’re some things she hasn’t tried. Would you be willing to try them with me?”

“Fine by me. I feel like she and I are swimming in circles in a pond going nowhere,” she replied despondently.

I stood her up and had her take a natural stance that straightened out the meridian pathways, held her by the wrists with my thumbs right on her pulses, and sank into concentration. I channeled my chi to travel the main routes to check. But once my chi crossed the acupoint into her, it evaporated into a pitch-black nothingness, lost forever.

I shifted my hands from her wrist, up her arms, my thumbs sweeping along the paths of the meridians to try to detect some sense of flow in her, any flow. I broke into a cold sweat, my breathing deepened into a pant. Korra’s breathing followed suit. I focused deeply but still no further insight.

I broke contact with her, eyes downcast at disappointment and frustration with myself. No answers yet, but I was very convinced I was close. Sometimes an injury to one part of the body can show its effects in a different part of the body far away.

I placed my hands on her hips, with thumbs right above her hip bones, and met her gaze.

“I’m going to look in your dantian, see how it’s doing. Is that ok with you?”

“Yes, just do whatever you need,” her eyes were practically begging.

I applied a light pressure and shifted my hands towards her dantian. She gasped.

“Sensitive?” I had to check.

She nodded and quivered a little, beads of sweat dripping down, gripping onto me, “don’t stop.”

I increased the pressure, and she panted more heavily. I had reached her dantian.

I saw a center that had retreated into itself. It was frightened, beset upon by enemies on every side, and saw enemies everywhere. This meant it was also her root chakra that was out of balance; the root chakra, whose element is earth. When a part of us is frightened it will tend to hoard, and hoard it did. Her center was trying to hoard energy, that was certain, but anything entering it and issuing from it was also of a dark quality – as if it were starving and trying to gobble energy but only finding… poison!

If my hypothesis was right, if I stopped the poison flowing into her center, it might give her a temporary relief.

“Korra”, I tried to lace the gravity with as much tenderness as I could, “I believe the poison is circulating with your chi. I would like to do something to see if I’m right. If it works, I may have an idea how to fix you. May i…..?”

“Just do it.”

I had never done this before.

With our meridian lines still connected I took a deep breath and concentrated.

The sound of popping joints cracked through the silence in the kitchen. Korra let out a little cry – I didn’t know if from agony or release. Her back was arched over the table.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!”

The specter of Master Katara stood at the kitchen threshold. Those four words from her contained more wrath for me than the four elements combined in Korra’s Avatar State.

I disconnected from Korra and she collapsed on the ground.

“ARE YOU BLOODBENDING KORRA?!?”

“I… I…..” my voice stuttered just as much as my movements as I tried to pick Korra up.

“DO NOT TOUCH KORRA!!!” Katara shoved me away and helped Korra stand up.

“I… I was just trying to help…..”

With Korra supported by the kitchen table, Katara turned to me, “What did I say about bloodbending under my roof? You have broken my trust. Get your things. Leave tonight. Do not come back. Do not call me Sifu ever again.”

My eyes did not linger to catch Korra’s gaze.

Hot tears welled in my eyes and my cheeks - no, my insides - burned helplessly with torment as I ran down the hallway to my quarters. I threw some clothes into a backpack – just enough to last me the journey back to my parents’ – little Kyoshi, and Love Amongst the Dragons.

Of course I left without saying goodbye.

* * * * *

I must have walked all night, pulled by the blind need to put one foot in front of the other, and pushed by the fear of not knowing what would swallow me up if I lay down to close my eyes even for a second. The moon lighted my path; Yue was still looking out for me.

It was too cold to cry – my eyes insisted that tears could not be wasted on feeling sorry for myself where they were needed as a shield against the frigid air.

10 miles, maybe 15 miles later I saw the sun rise over the Capital City of the South Pole, where my parents lived – where I used to live.

I could not turn up on their doorstep first thing in the morning. There would be too many questions; questions which I could not answer – either out of shame or because I didn’t know the answer myself.

I pulled my hood over my head so as not to be recognized, and set up a cup on a street corner. The couple coins the cup collected during the day was enough to buy snacks that sustained me throughout.

By late afternoon when the sun fell from its highest position in the sky, I started home.

I turned up on my parents’ doorstep and announced that I was here to stay. They had questions, and I don’t remember what I told them. It was a blur. Your body can be easily forgetful of pain – it’s what keeps women coming back for a second or third child even after the trauma of the first childbirth.

My parents said I was asleep for almost 24 hours after that. I have no memory of that either.

* * * * *

I had moped about the house for perhaps a week before my parents – ever the industrious folk – strongly prodded me to look for gainful employment.

What if a potential employer asked about my previous experience? What if they inquired about where I had trained and apprenticed as a healer? What if their inquiries led them to contact Katara? I could not bear the thought of any of these possibilities.

One morning I left on the pretext of finding a job, but my feet carried me instead to take the first gondola up the mountain, back to the Avatar’s mansion.

As I approached the imposing compound walls I was sure to keep out of view the White Lotus guard watchposts. There was one corner from which afforded a view through a window into Korra’s room. I just wanted to know how she was doing. I stood on that corner all day and waited. At the end of the day I would take the last gondola back down the mountain, and return home.

And so it became my routine every day, I would leave the house at sun-up to catch the gondola up the mountain, and return with the last gondola just after sundown. My parents assumed I had found work, and let me be.

I would stand on that corner all day, hidden from view, but peering in on the Avatar’s mansion. . Some days I got lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Korra at the desk by the window, reading or writing, I couldn’t make out which, but any day I could catch a glimpse of her, I nonetheless went home with a peace of mind. Some days I was not so lucky, and would stand there all day in a state of forlorn.

This must have gone on for about half a year before I finally worked up the courage to sneak into the Mansion by the servant’s back gate. I managed to find Auntie Sansan in the wing of the mansion where the kitchen, the pantry, the servants’ quarters and tiny farm was.

“Auntie Sansan, where’s Korra? How’s she doing? Is there any way I can see her?”

“Oh, my dear Reyla , how I’ve missed you! But I’m sorry you’re too late. Without a friend in the compound, Korra grew very lonely and I’m guessing that’s why she decided to return to Republic City. She left a few days ago!”

There was a knot in my throat, and in my chest, and in my stomach, and there might as well have been one in my dantian as well, all threatening to crumple me where I stood. 

“Just as well. She’s probably better off without me,” was all I could manage before leaving Auntie Sansan unceremoniously.

With Korra’s departure, the last thread tethering me to the South Pole had snapped.

The next morning I left the house, the same way as I did every day as if to go to work – so it seemed to my parents –except that I had packed a slightly bigger backpack.

I boarded the first ship I found bound for the Earth Kingdom.

* * * * *

I did not look back to the shore as it receded into the distance. I didn’t know when I was coming back to the Southern Water Tribe. It no longer held anything for me. A worse torment than guilt and shame is regret; regret that I couldn’t diagnose Korra sooner. That’s what you get from abstaining from practicing on animals out of compassion – you get punished by having to learn on your oldest and dearest friend, in a pinch to boot, and of course in those circumstances you fail catastrophically; you ruin everything. At least that’s what I told myself. This was the mantra that cycled over and over in my head.

What was the old saying, you can’t perform a surgery without breaking a few…bodies? Is that right?

Time to start breaking a few bodies, Reyla. You’re not a child anymore.

I don’t know how long I spent on that ship. That mantra turning and turning in my head felt new every cycle. It was as if no time had passed at all. But I don’t think it was the same girl who boarded the ship in my clothes who got off that ship.

I tied little Kyoshi to the outside of my backpack with a piece of twine, hoping that would help me blend in a little in the Earth Kingdom. Eventually I learned that in some parts of the continent it was common for Earth Kingdom folk to wear blue as I was. I passed through towns generally unmolested. Then again, I did not spend much time in towns because my funds were scant.

I spent most of my time in the forest.

* * * * *

I was lucky enough to find a tree trunk with cavern large enough to house my huddled body and backpack. The seclusion in the forest afforded me the freedom to practice. I could not risk being reported to authorities for what I was practicing.

I compelled myself with the same discipline that Katara did with our waterbending training since we were little: first thing when you wake until your mind could not concentrate any longer. It was not about physical exertion, but mental exertion. 

First it was small animals that scurried close to the ground at night: Raba-roos, and elephant rats and fire ferrets. Sense the tingles in their blood as it was pumped around their body at high speed by their tiny little hearts, connect your chi to the energy of those tingles and….push, pull. What nobody told me about small animals – and indeed who could tell me - is that while it’s easy to push and pull the small amount of blood they have, catching their chi is difficult because they are small and quick. I had to discover it for myself.

Push, pull.

You could stop the blood flow, and make the little critters seize up, or you could speed up the blood flow and give them a stroke or an aneurysm. Eventually I discovered a faster way of achieving the stroke – you could just pull the blood right out from the veins.

Almost as important a lesson as pushing and pulling the blood, was learning not to cry.

Eventually I learned how to pull the blood from a localized spot rather than all over, and likewise how to stop the little critter from bleeding out. But I can’t say how many rodents I broke to learn that technique. I don’t want to say.

Next I graduated myself to larger animals like a boar-q-pine or a hog-monkey. What I did learn with those is that while it certainly required more strength to push and pull that volume of blood, it was easier to control their limbs. With small critters it took fine control of waterbending to manipulate their limbs, whereas with larger creatures I could get away with less precise control. Then came the jack-a-lopes and the pygmy pumas.

With larger creatures I learned to sense the things mixed in with the water as part of the blood – what made blood thicker than water. It didn’t feel much different from mudbending – as though there was earth mixed in that made blood what it was.

We are all made of four elements: the earth and water combine to form our bodies; the air gives us breath, and the inner fire awakens us. Air feeds the fire, fire feeds the earth , and the water keeps the energy circulating round and round in the person.

My final test came when I encountered a platypus-bear. It towered above me, maybe twice as high, but certainly twice as wide. I approached it tentatively, but it stood erect and with a mighty roar, lurched ferociously towards me, snarling and bearing all teeth. Without flinching I stopped it an arms’ length from myself, suspended by its blood. Slowly I bent its limbs and spine in ways that nature did not intend for them to go.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Don’t cry, Reyla.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Look into its eyes, Reyla.

I saw its lights go out. Asphyxia, no doubt.

Commonly thought of as caused by the withholding of air, I learned now that the same can be caused by the withholding of blood.

I dropped its body on the ground and regarded it, just a lump of earth on the ground, devoid of air, devoid of fire. I felt nothing.

Bushes rustled close by which caught my attention. A baby platypus-bear waddled out toward the carcass of its mama. This cub had lost its mama, just like I had lost Katara.

You’re on your own now, kid. Just like me.

Don’t cry.

I took some snacks I had in my pack and tossed it far into the bushes for the platypus-bear cub to follow. I spent the rest of the day skinning his mama’s carcass. 

* * * * *

Korra had been on the water for weeks. All that time she had very much looked forward to coming back to Republic City, and seeing the friends she missed so dearly– her Team Avatar, finally reunited after three long years.

Avatar.

That title was like a medal of lead around her neck.

As the shore of Republic City’s harbor pulled into view with its halo of a skyline, the shadow of Aang’s statue loomed large over Korra’s watercraft, and in that moment she felt the shadow of Aang loom large over her.

In her previous life she had single-handedly defeated the Fire Lord Ozai at the height of his powers during the passing of Sozin’s Comet, but now she had been reduced to floundering against a small group of firebending sparring partners hired by the White Lotus on her behalf. She was an Avatar without honor, and how could she face her Team Avatar without this honor?

She needed to regain it somehow.

As if guided by some external force, her hands changed the course of her catamaran, out of Aang’s shadow, and away from Republic City.

All this while, the moon watched.

* * * * *

After I decided I had enough of the forest, I reentered human civilization. Often I didn’t have a clue where I was going, or where I would end up the next day, so I looked to Yue for inspiration, and she would guide my steps to places that piqued both our curiosities. It was like being ten again, just her and me, gossiping into the night. 

Once, we ended up in a city that had been built from the ground down – Loonggau, I believe it was called. Every level had been earthbent from the one above it, held in place by a series of precariously rickety scaffolds. I marveled at how these things hadn’t already collapsed. I marveled even more at how there were people actually living here. Then again the people who lived there looked like they did not have anywhere else they could set up a home – people who could not afford to build a house on the surface, people who were somehow pushed to the margins of society. I could see it in their eyes the longing to be part of the world up above again, but the were shackled down here. Oddly enough the deeper down into Loonggau I went, the calmer I felt. This deep in the earth, there was groundwater flowing close beneath, trickling down the walls. Feeling my native element reassured my sense of equilibrium.

I stumbled upon a teahouse – well they called it a teahouse but there was more wine being drunk than tea – where there were games at ever table, games at which some people were making money.

I tried my luck at a table with cards. Apparently this game was about convincing everyone else at the table that you had the best cards, regardless of what they were. Nobody’s bluffs escaped me. The din in that den was too loud for me to hear any pulses, but I could feel the throbbing of those same pulses purely by bloodsense. I won a couple games and a handful of coins but decided it was time to go when I noticed a pattern of the dresscode in the room: some sported flowers of a specific type, some sported colored hankderchiefs, and all sported weapons on their belts that looked like elaborate torture devices. I discretely returned to the surface where I continued to wander from town to town, seeing things learning things.

Just like I did with my books back at the Mansion.

In a different town I had found a spot under a bridge where I could set up camp. Being close to a river afforded me a small sense of security the bustling city. Sometimes when I felt like it I would create a mist and make mysterious sounds under its cover so that passers by would think it was haunted by a River Spirit that had the body of a human and the head of a platypus-bear. It kept my camp undisturbed but mostly it was fun.

One day there was a commotion coming out of something that looked like a garage. Sweaty men with sweaty beverages in hand came and went from the garage that was packed like putrid sardines. Inside there was cheering, jeering and drunkenness. Now I had to see what this was all about. I wove my way through the throng into the garage door to find it was a sunken sports arena: Earth Tumble. Ah yes, the poor-man’s version of the famous Earth Rumble tournaments from Gaoling. Seemed like that night was ladies’ night, because there were two women covered in mud pitted against each other in the arena.

I could tell this was little more than local entertainment, because the girl who seemed to be winning was by no means a master earthbender – she had such sloppy form; hell, even I, a waterbender, had a better horse stance than that flimsy excuse for a structure. She was lucky the girl she was up against didn’t know up from down. Must be her first contest, what a noob- wait. Why does earthbender noob have blue eyes…. KORRA?!

I winced through the entire match as Korra took a beating from wet-noodle-horsestance girl. 

After the match I stalked her outside the grimy arena bathroom. The crowd had dissipated and it was just the night air heavy with the smell of unwashed bodies and unwashed bathroom. When she finally emerged, I tried to catch her attention,

“Korra …”, I reached out to her.

She flinched in my direction with crazed eyes and, trembling, flung a flame at me.

“GET AWAY FROM ME, UNALAQ!!!”  
  
Ah, shit. This mist I had created with the intention of effecting a dramatic reunion seemed to have backfired. 

She flung flames haphazardly and I deftly dodged them all without raising a single water attack. Just as well - only water in the vicinity was from that bathroom. I managed to close the distance and…. Slip some strategically-placed ice under her feet, catching her before she hit the ground.

She stopped thrashing when she finally recognized me.

“Reyla?!?”

“Ugh, yes. How could you compare me to your creepy wizard of an uncle? Not to speak ill of the dead, but you know I’m not wrong.”

“I’m sorry, but, you just…. I thought you looked like Vaatu.”

I put her arm over my shoulder and supported her to a spot where we could sit down, away from the throughfare. I waited for her to catch her breath before starting,

“Korra, I know you’re still sick. And it’s my fault I wasn’t able to diagnose you earlier.”

She took a deep breath, “does this involve…. Bloodbending?” she seemed almost afraid of the answer; I knew I was.

It was my turn to take a deep breath, and let a pregnant pause linger in the air between us, the air that smelled like piss and vomit intermingled, “Yes.”

She recoiled from me. I felt the stab of rejection before reminding myself of her past trauma, of Amon, of losing her Avatarhood even if temporarily, of the fact that based on how she fared in the ring this evening, she does still feel like she has lost her Avatarhood.

I gave her a moment before starting, “Four years ago, at Katara’s, I stopped a man’s internal bleeding. Mr Altan. He’s still alive today because of me. Katara thinks I used healing water, but it wasn’t that. I made his blood stop going where it shouldn’t go.”

A city elephant-rat squeaked by dragging in its mouth a chunk of fried dough much larger than itself.

I pointed to the rat, “do you want me to show you?”

“No, no, please don’t, I believe you.” She clasped her hands over mine and folded my hands toward my own chest. The contact from her was reassuring. 

“I would never hurt you, Korra, I hope you know that,” I said with all earnestness.

She returned the gaze, and regarded my words.

I continued, “if I ever hurt you, it will be in a fair 1-to-1 sparring rematch, which you owe me.”

Korra looked at the ground and chuckled. Even she acknowledged our last encounter was a draw.

I went on, “it will be fair, before Tui and La and Yue, and all the spirits that even the Great Yangchen couldn’t say no to it.”

Now I had finally made her laugh, a laugh that took on a fleeting Air Nomad countenance.

She regarded me again and sighing, gave me her hands.

“Okay?” Like a good healer, I had to double-check her consent.

“Okay.” She consented.

I held her wrists with my thumbs on her pulses and concentrated. The insights gave themselves up immediately.

“Yue’s tits, girl, your blood is flowing a lot slower than it should. Nobody talks about this, but we all have a natural amount of metal in the blood that the water just pushes along. Here it’s like every drop of your blood has its own ball and chain.”

Korra was in disbelief, “I thought they had gotten it all out!”

“Well apparently not.”

“That might explain the visions.”

“Like the ones you used to have back home?”

“Yes, but these ones I see even while I’m awake. They get worse at certain times of the month.”

“Here, how about I take you back to my camp?”

“No, I’m just….I just want to sit down for a bit.”

We sat, and she placed her head on my shoulder. I held her in silence. For a long while she vacantly stared out nowhere in particular, afraid to close her eyes. She was like a glassy pond – I had no idea what was going on beneath the surface. After more of a long while, I closed my eyes and slipped into the Spirit Realm.

“What the fuck, Yue, you can’t just go around traumatizing Korra like that. Hasn’t she been through enough?” I yelled into the ether.

  
Yue materialized before me, “Hey, I’ve been the bringer of dreams since before either of you were born, so simmer down. It’s not always perfect, especially not with Korra and her ragged chi. You found each other and that’s what matters.”

I stared at the ground, at a loss for words.

Yue went on, “There’s something else you should know. The place that Korra is about to go, you can’t follow. They don’t take kindly to bloodbenders there. ”

Now I’m sure my eyes could not hide my desperation, “why not?”

“You have a spiritual taint, Reyla, being a bloodbender. Look inside yourself and you know it’s true, you carry a darkness in you that the spirits there do not want corrupting their own.”

My legs gave way, dropping me to my knees. I grasped at Yue’s skirts and wept into them.

She stroked my hair and reassured me, “don’t worry. She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Promise?” I asked through sniffles.

Yue peered down at me over her ample cleavage, her silver-white crown cut a figure rising over twin mountains. She replied:

“Have the tides ever failed to rise?”

* * * * *

I returned to the physical world, agonizing over how to break the news to Korra. I had wanted accompany her to seek help for the poison, if there was nothing I could do about it, the least I could do was protect her during the search. Now the only way I could help her was to abandon her.

I rehearsed it in my head, “Korra I must leave you. There’s a spirit coming for you that mustn’t see me or bad things will happen.”

I huffed in frustration at how awkward and clumsy and downright crazy that sounded. That line would never help anyone.

My huff startled Korra, who turned up to look at me with eyes that were glazed over, but in a flash turned crazed once again,

“GET AWAY FROM ME VAATU!!!” She screamed, flinging flames at me again, and pushing herself backwards on all fours.

That was my cue. Fighting back tears, I conjured a mist and disappeared into it. 

* * * * *

I kept turning the memory of our encounter over in my head for days, weeks, months after the fact. It was good to see my oldest friend. And the fact that she finally forgave me for bloodbending her meant the world to me. On top of that, the fact that I could help her in my own small little way meant the world and everything in it. For all those things I counted my blessings.

Where would I go next?

The Earth Kingdom had been a chaotic place before I set foot on the continent with bandits and looters running rampant, but I could handle a band of two-bit hoodlums. News of a Great Uniter swooping in on a high-tech Maglev train to clean up the territories and annex them was spreading quickly, and likewise rumors that fire and waterbenders found in Earth Empire territory were being rounded up and sent to prison camps was something less savory than I cared to deal with.

Right now the Fire Nation seems pretty appealing. I could do with the change of scenery. Springtime is over, and must give way after all to summer. 

Perhaps I might learn more there about steambending.

To Be Continued... 

**Author's Note:**

> more chapters for this novel are in the works... 
> 
> also a sequel...


End file.
